Tasting butterflies
Rudy Benavides
rbenavid at hotmail.com
Thu Jul 26 15:36:16 EDT 2001
Have you ever eaten larvae? If you have watched the tv program _Insectia_
with Canadian entomologist Georges Brossard, you may recall the episode he
did on the Aegiale hesperiaris skippers in Mexico. The larvae, found at the
base of yucca and agave plants, are added to the individual bottles of
Mescal to provide its distinctive flavor. But indigenous people in Mexico
also gather the caterpillars, deep fry them, and then season with their
flavorful spicy sauces. In that particular television episode, Georges was
seen helping his host dig out handfuls of the caterpillars at the base of a
yucca plant (?), then showing how they were cooked, and finally helping
himself to a plateful....yumm. I can still hear him in his distinctive
French Candaian accent saying....."ah, there ees notheeng more finer than a
plate of theese delicious gusanos de Maguey".....or sometheeng like that.
Rudy/Maryland
p.s. Brossard is the founder of the Montreal Insectarium, and the last i
heard was that he was also involved in creating one for Audobon in New
Orleans.
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